Pulsating Purple in the Fall Meadow  
by Ginny Stibolt

As summer winds down and flowers in the meadows fade, color provided by an assortment of berries is appreciated by birds and humans alike.  

Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) with its unbelievably brilliant magenta berries is native to this region. We have some occurring naturally in the edges of the woods on our property in the back.  I've moved several small bushes to an semi-shaded area out front and even ones with very little root survived.

Also new individuals have volunteered in areas where I've cleared the vines and brambles at the edge of wooded areas.  They were sowed by the mockingbirds, no doubt.  I've watched beautyberry stems droop to the ground as mockingbirds pick off the berries one-by-one.

The flowers are pretty, but not nearly as noticeable as those pulsating magenta berries.  Some people claim that beautyberry jelly is good, but it seems like a lot of work because the berries are small and the seed takes up most of the volume.  I'm more inclined to enjoy the berries on their branches and let the birds have them.

It's been found that beautyberry produces three insect repellent chemicals: callicarpenal, intermedeol and spathulenol.  So the old folklore of crushing the leaves on your skin to repel mosquitoes has merit.   Here's an article on finding the insect repellent chemicals in beautyberry: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/07/060703091932.htm.

A pokeweed (Phytolacca americana) plant has grown to nearly twenty feet tall where it leans on an oak tree at the far side of the drainfield mound.  A third of it has broken under its own weight where it was not leaning on the tree.  The official descriptions of this plant peg the height as up to 10 feet.  I guess they didn't consider our long growing season here in Florida or that it might lean on a tree for support.  Even now in November, it continues to grow, bloom,  and produce its dark purple berries.

I've seen various species of birds eating the berries, and purple deposits polka dot the cement driveway under trees where those birds perch near this plant.  It's a desirable weed for your wildlife garden.

I've done my share of foraging over the years, but I've never been tempted by pokeweed, because you need to catch it early in the season before the poisons build up in the stem so you can cut it off and eat it like asparagus.  You also can eat the greens, but you must boil them twice and throw out the first water to get rid of the toxins--this has been called poke sallet, an old English term for cooked greens.  I always thought people were saying, "poke salad," but that didn't make any sense because you'd never eat the uncooked greens.  The root and the seeds are the most toxic parts of the plant.

The top of the plant will die back after the first frost, but the root survives and sends up new shoots in the spring.  Each year the plant gets larger.  Native Americans took full advantage of pokeweed, using the plant medicinally and employing the berries and stems for dye and for painting their horses.  Supporters for James Polk, our eleventh president, reportedly wore pokeweed leaves around their necks.  The common name is sometimes spelled, "Polk."

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) has volunteered in several shaded spots in our back meadows.  We've enjoyed the wonderful white flowerheads, but the birds eat the berries as fast as they are produced.  I guess I won't be making any elderberry wine from those purple/black berries.

These shrubs grow quickly and once a thicket is formed from their rhizomes, they can become a stately hedge.  Right now, mine are looking scraggly and unkempt in the meadows, so I may prune them back to a better shape.  In colder climates, elderberries are deciduous, but here in north Florida, they seem to not mind the light frosts and continue to stay green and bloom.

Elderberries are native to both Europe and North America and have a long history of medicinal use by Native Americans and Europeans.  The raw berries have poisonous residues, but cooking destroys both its poisons and vitamin C.  The core of the wood is soft and people used to carve whistles or flutes from it, but warnings have been issued that these whistles may have poisoned the players.  So, let the birds compete for the berries and leave this one off your plate. 

Okay, the berries of the Southern bayberry (Myrica cerifera) aren't purple, but some people might say that their gray, waxy coating has a slight lavender cast.  I included them in this list of purple-berried plants because groups of white-eyed vireos and gold finches have been busy gorging themselves recently.

This easy-to-grow and wide-ranging native shrub has root nodules, like a legume, that fix atmospheric nitrogen: this provides fertilizer in poor sandy soils.  It's tolerant of drought or standing water (either brackish or fresh). It will grow back after a fire, too.  It was already growing on our lot, but I've successfully transplanted it to new areas to provide more cover and privacy.

You may use it in the landscape as a hedge or a specimen plant.  It takes to pruning to produce a thick privacy screen and bird nesting sites.  Native Americans, including Seminoles, used this plant for medicinal purposes, plus they used it as an insect repellent.  They surrounded their home sites with it and placed branches under their beds to keep fleas away. They also places twigs in their flour to keep out the weevils.  Early European settlers boiled the wax from the berries to make candles.  The northern species (M. pensylvanica) has more wax and is usually the source for those wonderful smelling holiday bayberry candles.

One last lavender in the meadow right now is the bushy aster (Aster dumosus). The bees are loving it.  Many of these delicate late-flowering plants have volunteered in meadows and other garden areas.  It grows to about five feet tall, but as the flowers develop, the stems sag creating a lovely, if ungainly, arching boughs. Some of you might even have pulled it out as a weed.

Cultivars of this aster include dwarf varieties with more exciting color of the ray florets. When you purchase the Michaelmas daisy, it is a cultivar of this species.  The native, tall variety is fine with me.  It makes quite a show in my fall landscape.

Do you have purple and lavender in your landscape this fall?  If you do, enjoy the show as the birds flock to your lot throughout the cooler weather.

Ginny Stibolt would like to hear from readers who have suggestions and questions. After all, there are more than a few transplanted gardeners here in northeast Florida trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t in planting zone 8/9. She's in the process of writing a book, "Sustainable Gardening for Florida," to be published by University Press of Florida. You may contact her or read extra details on her articles and other information posted on her website: www.transplantedgardener.com.

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